Mobilehome Residency Law: water utility charges.

Under existing law if the management of a mobilehome park provides both master-meter and submeter service of utilities to a homeowner, for each billing period the charges for the period are required to be separately stated along with the opening and closing readings for the homeowner. Existing law requires management to post, in a conspicuous place, the specific current residential utility rate as published by the serving utility. Existing law authorizes management of a mobilehome park to also post the internet website address of the specific current residential utility rate schedule, as specified. This bill would, if the management of a mobilehome park elects to separately bill water utility service to homeowners, limit charges and fees on homeowners in connection with those services to specified types of charges and fees. The specified charges and fees would be for (1) the homeowner's volumetric usage based on the homeowner's proportion of total usage, or, where the water purveyor uses a tiered rate schedule, based on the homeowner's proportion of the tier's usage, or based on a mobilehome space rate; (2) any recurring fixed charge, however that charge is designated, for water service that has been billed to management by the water purveyor, determined on the basis of either the homeowner's proportional share of volumetric use or the total charge divided by the number of mobilehome spaces; and (3) a billing, administrative, or other fee representing the costs of both management and the billing agent combined, not to exceed $4.75 or 25% of the charge for the homeowner's volumetric usage, whichever is less. The bill would prohibit volumetric usage charges from including water usage by a park's common area facilities or by any other person or entity other than the homeowner. This bill would provide that these provisions do not prevent management from recovering its costs to install, maintain, or improve its internal water delivery system, as may otherwise be allowed in any rental agreement or local regulation. The bill would define terms for these purposes.